I worked as an adventure tours guide in South East Asia for 11 years. Doing a stint over in Borneo had me taking tour groups up the mountain every 2 weeks. On the ascent I had to stay within range of them but having said that the first time I went up to the overnight accomadation I walked up within the qualifying time for the annual race.
I could run back down by myself as I didn't need to supervise the group members as much as for the ascent.

Good spotting on the Diamond there Cuttle, looks intersting.There's been a lot of talk here re the XF McCoy nugs, anyone tried anything else from the XF range. Ride reports? how does the tech stand up to a lot of use?

Still loving my xf all round nuggets. Surfed my 6'8" a couple of times in the last few days in decent 3' plus waves and really enjoying how well it surfs with good speed and a willingness to turn easily and smoothly with bottom turn to reo combos and cutbacks. Decks look to be holding up really well.
Every time I surf them I think to myself that I wouldn't want to try surfing a poly McCoy again since the xf ones are just so much more responsive.
Maybe if you're not asking much from them in turns but I'm all for pushing them hard and enjoying putting them on rail.
Well worth trying if one gets the chance.
Keen to have a surf on my 6'3" and experiment with some weird fin combos like Webber curves and DVS keels side fins with conventional trailers.
Tried the Webber curves with a Harris 3d keel centre and while it went rail to rail in a heart beat it felt strange (though I can't put my finger on exactly how) which I figure was too much hold in the 3d fin.
Surfing my 6'3" with fcs II accelerators which feel spot on anyway. These boards are so much fun.

Hi, hoping some can impart a bit of wisdom. I have just got back in the water after 15 weeks due to a knee injury.
I thought my knee could have been a bit unstable coming back but at 47 and pushing 90kg the problem has been how much my surfing has suffered, mainly paddling fitness.

I borrowed a mates 6'9" Black Beauty which paddled great but felt pretty stiff as my boards are between 6' to 6'4". I have never enjoyed eps boards but after reading through this thread i'm thinking one of these xf things could be ok in a high volume board. I plan to use it for recovery and then on busy or lazy days.

So what do you guys think would suit better a Nugget in 6'3 or 6'6" or because i will be still mainly surfing shortboards a Chilli Odyssey in 6'6" or 6"8".
I'm in Vicco and will be using the board mainly in beaches and reefs in the 3-6ft range, so mainly more open faced waves but a couple of waves i surf have a ledgy take off with the occasional barrel.

I'd go the 6'6''.
It has 4 litres more volume than the 6' 3''.
The 6'6'' with a volume of 47 litres and you weighing 90 kg means you would have chosen a buoyancy to weight ratio of .52 kg/ litre.
My preference for nuggets is for more volume around .6 kg/litre ratio which gives more glide speed and would really suit waves with flatter faces.
I also think if you are building up a quiver of boards it is best to have more volume, size , thickness and width difference between each board rather than less.
Often when people first try a nugget they stand too far forward landing their feet where they would on a narrower tailed board not realising that the sweet spot can be 2'' further back due to the amount of volume in the tail.

the XF nuggets are very good....light.reasonably strong and detachable fins so you can tune in your surfing for different conditions....superior in knee to chest high waves to the PUs....head hi and above I like weight(a personal choice).....like all light boards they get held up the face in strong offshores.the(allrounder) nugget curves fit hollow waves like a glove. in fatter less slopey waves they are ok. but revel when it gets sucky.